Breakthrough, Grand Magus!

Constant cultivation made time pass swiftly. In the blink of an eye, it was July of Yulan Calendar Year 1, and Arnold broke through once more.

Arnold's spiritual energy had directly broken through to the realm of a Ninth-level Archmage. During his two and a half years of grueling cultivation in the Warcraft Mountain Range, he had broken through to become an Eighth-level Mage by the end of the first year. Then, after leaving the Warcraft Mountain Range and meeting up with Yale, he had stayed in the imperial capital, Scarlet Flame City, for nearly another year. In less than three years, Arnold's spiritual energy had broken through. It was simply defying the heavens.

One had to know that advancing from an Eighth-level Mage to a Ninth-level Mage required an astonishing amount of spiritual energy. Even talented mages needed more than a decade. But Arnold was different. He spent almost all his time researching magic and had long immersed himself in Earth Elements. Arnold's spiritual energy had grown so quickly entirely because of the benefits brought by the Earth Escape Art and Wind Escape Technique.

His spiritual energy had just broken through, but his magical power still needed refining! After spending several more days vigorously refining his magical power, Arnold's earth and wind magic officially entered the realm of a Ninth-level Archmage.

Arnold once again began his journey of learning new ninth-level magic. There were still quite a few ninth-level spells.

For example, the armor formed by the ninth-level Earthquake Sacred Armor was made of platinum.

The wind-style ninth-level spell—Wind Shadow Spell—was known as the strongest auxiliary magic. Its principle was the fusion of the auxiliary magic Extreme and Wings of Wind, producing an unusual effect much like having wings. It was fast and agile. Of course, the speed boosted by Wind Shadow Spell still could not match Wind Escape Technique, but it could fly, which was still somewhat useful to Arnold.

The strongest wind-style ninth-level magic, Vacuum Annihilation Art, was said to be a single-target spell capable of killing even a Saint Domain expert, so long as one had sufficient magical power.

Arnold was practically fired up by a series of ideas concerning Vacuum Annihilation Art. Since Gravity Prison could cleverly trap an enemy, could he use Vacuum Annihilation Art afterward to kill the weakest Saint Domain expert? Arnold sank into fantasy, but its power was too great, and he had no test subject.

Wind style also had another ninth-level spell: the advanced version of Wind Blade—Vacuum Binding Art. Its power could not be underestimated either.

Arnold also practiced earth-style spells such as Shattering Stone and Earth Golem.

As for some of Arnold's modified spells, their power was even more remarkable.

For example, with the support of greater magical power, the Gravity Law produced by Arnold's full-force Greater Gravity Spell became even stronger. This time, however, it was no longer a major increase, rising only to fivefold gravity.

With such a small increase, Arnold concluded that even if he reached the peak of the Ninth-level Mage realm, he could at most raise the gravity to fivefold.

As for the ninth-level Spiral Sphere, the number of spherical stone blocks formed first had increased to forty-five, and its power had become incomparably immense.

The effects of Earth Escape Art and Wind Escape Technique, on the other hand, had not changed much. Arnold was not surprised. He had not even bothered to give them ranks before, and now he intended to keep calling them Earth Escape Art and Wind Escape Technique unless someone clearly gave them different names.

However, Arnold had not changed much in terms of physical strength and battle qi. His physical strength had always remained at the level of a Sixth-level Warrior.

Now that he had reached the realm of a Ninth-level Mage, Arnold had gained a deeper understanding of Earth Law.

Each time he used Earth Escape Art to travel beneath the ground, Arnold could clearly sense the earth's unique Pulsation. That distinctive rhythm always immersed him within it.

If, while attacking, he could completely transform his power into vibrations similar to Earth Pulsation Profound Truth, the power would be incredible. After all, when vibrations struck an enemy, they would create resonance within the enemy's body. The internal organs were nowhere near as resilient as the body's exterior defenses. Such resonance could easily shake an enemy's insides into pulp. Unfortunately, transforming attack power into resonance was far too difficult. Ordinary attacks, such as channeling battle qi and strength into a sword and slashing at an enemy, were completely different from attacks using vibration waves.

After experiment after experiment, Arnold could sometimes produce two or three vibrations in a single instant of attack, but most of the time he could not transform even one. According to Arnold's guess, the more vibration waves he could transform during an attack, the higher the conversion efficiency, and the further he had progressed in Earth Fluctuation.

Despite his uninterrupted experiments, Arnold still could not freely unleash vibration waves as he wished. However, his research into Earthquake Sacred Armor gave him a deeper understanding. Thus, Arnold once again gradually improved the vibrations of the Earth Elements within the armor formed by Earthquake Sacred Armor, making their frequency higher and higher. As a result, Earthquake Sacred Armor's defensive power grew ever stronger. Arnold guessed that the defensive power of the ninth-level, platinum-grade Earthquake Sacred Armor he could now cast had reached perhaps a quarter of that of the Saint Domain-level Earth Guardian Sacred Armor!

Since he could not make the most of vibration attacks, strengthening his defense was not bad either. With high defensive power, defense itself could be considered a form of attack.

Having reached the realm of a Ninth-level Mage, Arnold once again began to probe the speed of Wind Law. Since he wanted to study speed, he set Wind Escape Technique aside for the moment. The wind-style ninth-level spell Wind Shadow Spell was actually the best interpretation of speed.

Arnold continuously cast Wind Shadow Spell, and his figures could be seen everywhere throughout the forest.

With Wind Escape Technique, Arnold's own speed had already reached a limit. He could not surpass that limit in a short time.

But wind itself gathered and scattered without form, appearing everywhere. Its speed was naturally unimaginably fast. If he could not become faster himself, could he make the wind do it in his place?

When Arnold had previously researched Spiral Sphere, he had tried using a sliver of spiritual energy to control the formed Spiral Sphere, merging it into the Earth Elements to increase the speed at which it struck an enemy. Replacing earth with wind produced the same effect.

Arnold continuously cast Wind Shadow Spell as he moved through the forest, comprehending the rhythm of the wind.

Whenever Arnold moved Fast, fierce winds appeared around him. His body moved at Extreme speed, yet his eyes were closed and his expression was natural, as though he were savoring something, or perhaps experimenting with something.

As he passed through one large tree after another, Arnold's body gradually became exceedingly elusive. He seemed very fast, yet also very Slow. If someone had observed beside Arnold, they might have developed an illusion: it was as though three or four Arnolds were moving through the forest.

What Arnold had just done was merely imagine himself as the wind, merge into the wind elements, press himself close to the wind, and fuse with it, producing this effect.

He had actually created a force field similar to himself, like shadows. When those strange shadows moved somewhere, it was as though they had pushed the air aside in that location. In truth, Arnold's body was not there, but by controlling the wind, he could make it seem as though he was.

After repeatedly entering those shadows, Arnold could even make them leave footprints and produce sounds. These so-called shadows were actually force fields created by Arnold pushing the wind's formless, gathering-and-scattering nature to the Extreme.

These shadows provided no boost to attacks, and because they were formed by Arnold controlling the wind, their cohesion was very weak. A casual strike from a Seventh-level Warrior could probably split them apart. The shadows could neither attack nor defend, but at least they could draw someone's attention.